SHARED HISTORIES - Young Ambassadors WW1 Commemoration France Tour July 2014 Itinerary prepared and organised by:
YOUR ITINERARY Meals indicated as: (B) = Breakfast (L) = Lunch (D) = Dinner Friday 11 th July 2014 5:30pm Depart Auckland International Airport on Emirates Flight EK 407 7:40pm 9:25pm Arrive Melbourne International airport in transit Depart Melbourne International Airport Saturday 12 th July 2014 (D) 05:30am 08:20am 1:30pm Arrive Dubai Internatonal airport in transit Depart Dubai International airport Arrive Charles De Gaulle Meet with your coach driver at the airport, load your luggage in the coach and transfer directly to your hostel accommodation in Paris. Check-in to your hostel accommodation and freshen up Own arrangements for transport (public buses, metro, RER trains) Make your way to the Eiffel Tower by metro. You may wish to climb the Parisian icon of the Eiffel Tower (at own expense) Then walk to the docks of the Bâteaux Parisiens - Port de la Bourdonnais - Paris 7th and enjoy a 1-hour cruise on the Seine. 2
Sunday 13 th July 2014 (B, D) Own arrangements for transport (public buses, metro, RER trains) AM: Make your way to Les Invalides. You are expected at the Group entry for a self guided visit of the Army Museum. We recommend that you focus on the contemporary department that tells the story of the French Army from 1871 to 1945, and the two great conflicts of the 20th century (You will be required to provide a Name list printed on a school letterhead with names and dates of birth of student group admission is free for students aged under 18 plus for every 10 students one adult is free additional adults pay 9 each directly). PM: Travel up to Montmartre. Visit the Basilica Sacré Coeur, before taking time to explore the bohemian streets of this artistic district, including Place du Tertre. Here you can have your portrait sketched or enjoy the paintings that depict typical scenes of Paris. Descending the hillside, you can stop to photograph the Moulin Rouge. Monday 14 th July 2014 (B, D) Own arrangements for transport (public buses, metro, RER trains) AM: Today being the French National Day, you may like to see the military parade on the Champs Elysées (be on spot quite early to get a good spot). PM: Walk on the famous Champs Elysées Avenue from the Place de la Concorde to l Etoile. There you may choose to climb on to the Arc de Triomphe (no reservation payment at own charge: 30 for a school group of 30 students aged under 18). The Arc de Triomphe symbolizes the history of France and embodies the city of Paris throughout the world. Today and since 1921, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Memorial Flame keep alive its patriotic role. Tuesday 15 th July 2014 (B, D) Own arrangements for transport (public buses, metro, RER trains) AM: Meet with your coach driver and transfer to Compiègne located 80 km north of Paris and visit the «Musée de l Armistice» located in the Clearing of Rethondes. There you will see a replica of the carriage where the Armistice was signed in 11 November 1918, ending the 1st World War (the original one was destroyed by the S.S in 1945). 22 years later, on 22 June 1940, Adolf Hitler required that the French government also signed the Armistice there as a symbol of the German revenge after the humiliation of 1918. Return to Paris in the late morning. 3
PM: Free for own activities. Wednesday 16 th July 2014 (B) Thursday 17 th July 2014 Friday 18 th July 2014 AM: Last morning in Paris for shopping. PM: Meet with your coach driver, load your luggage in the coach and transfer to Arras. On arrival at la grande place, you meet with your host families and start your homestay experience (arranged by Embassy) Overnight Arras Area with host families Today the students will have the opportunity to spend the day with their host families. They may also have the opportunity to participate in workshops. Overnight Arras Area with host families Students assemble this morning and meet with their coach driver at la grande place. AM: Coach transfer to Péronne. Visit the Museum of the Great War 1914-18 that keeps a collection of more than 65 000 civil and military everyday objects. Individual and collective memories present the last days of the old world and the birth of the twentieth century through an approach that is at once cultural, social and military PM: Travel to Albert for visit of the Somme battlefields. First stop is in Ovillers la Boisselle where you can see the impressive Lochnagar mine crater which is 100 meters in diameter and 30 meters deep. Then on to Thiepval, the biggest Memorial in the World (a Franco-British Memorial more details www.thiepval.org.uk). This centre counts a number of amenities (an information desk, shop, projection room, vending machines and toilets). Continue to Longueval where the New Zealand Memorial commemorates the area from which the New Zealand Division started during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on September 15th 1916, an occasion that saw the first use of tanks in. Close to Longueval, visit the Caterpillar-Valley Cemetery, a large cemetery which contains 214 New Zealand burials. The left-hand wall of the cemetery comprises one of the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing panels. It lists 1,205 names. Finally stop in Beaumont-Hamel where you can tour the Park of Newfoundland (free access). A track leads to an orientation table at the top of the Caribou mound from where a wide overall view of the whole battlefield reveals the trench lay-out. Return to Arras in the late afternoon. Overnight Arras area with host families 4
Saturday 19 th July 2014 Sunday 20 th July 2014 Spend a full-day with your host families Overnight Arras area with host families Students assemble this morning and meet with their coach driver at la grande place. AM: Travel to Le Quesnoy (75mn journey). The capture of Le Quesnoy by the New Zealand Division on 4 November 1918 has special significance in New Zealand's military history. This is not merely because it was the last major action by the New Zealanders in the Great War but also because of the manner of its capture. The New Zealand Division captured 2000 Germans and sixty field guns. The attack cost the lives of about ninety New Zealand soldiers virtually the last of the 12,483 who fell on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918. Spend the day looking around the city of Le Quesnoy at those sites relevant to the NZ involvement in WW1. Leading off from the town square (Place Général Leclerc) through the Porte du Château is the Avenue des Néo-Zélandais, which leads to the Jardin du Souvenir (Garden of Remembrance). Signposts will direct you to the New Zealand Battlefield Memorial, one of the four New Zealand Memorials on the Western Front. Just to the north of the town is Le Quesnoy Communal Cemetery Extension. Most of the fifty New Zealanders buried here lost their lives on 4 November 1918, one week before the Armistice. PM: Travel to Arras. Visit the Wellington Quarry, an underground site filled with memories and emotion. 20m below ground discover how the soldiers lived in the quarries during the week before the 1917 spring offensive. Then, like them, come out of this shelter and via a film, discover the shock that was the 9th April Battle of Arras. Return to your accommodation in the late afternoon. Then you travel back to Arras and return to your host families. 5
Monday 21 st July 2014 Overnight Arras area with host families Today students with spend the day with host families and enjoy any local events. Enjoy your last evening with your host families in Arras Overnight Arras area with host families Tuesday 22 nd July 2014 (D) Students assemble this morning at la grande place, load their luggage in the coach and transfer to the Belgium Flanders. AM: Stop in Kemmel. You may wish to visit the remains of several bunkers. Then enjoy visiting the Bayerwald trenches. The trenches are actually within a fenced off area about 50 meters square. Information panels and a scale model explain the events of war and life at the front. What you definitely must do is walk to the restored trenches. A unique experience! PM: Continue to Ypres. Visit the Museum In Flanders Fields which presents the story of the First World War in the West Flanders front region. It is located in the renovated Cloth Halls of Ypres, an important symbol of wartime hardship and later recovery. The completely new permanent exhibition (opening 11 June 2012) tells the story of the invasion of Belgium and the first months of the mobilisation, the four years trench war in the Westhoek, the end of the war and the permanent remembrance ever since. By 7:30pm, make your way to the Menin Gate by for the daily World War I Memorial ceremony. Then at 8pm you attend the Menin Gate Ceremony (the group needs to be at the gate by 7.45pm earliest 7.55pm latest to get a good position). Here you can witness this moving ceremony where since 1920 (exc WWII) the traffic is stopped each night and the last post is played. The Menin Gate has inscribed upon it 58,000 names of soldiers with unknown grave. Finally you transfer to Messines. Dinner and overnight in Messines at the Peace Village Wednesday 23 rd July 2014 (B, D) Leave your hostel by 9am for a tour of the Ypres Salient. AM: First you stroll around Messines. This village was taken by troops from the New Zealand Division. The New Zealand troops had to advance up a steep hill to reach Messines, from their front lines in the vicinity of the farm buildings in the valley below. Walking up the road that curves up the hill, you realise what a 6
steep climb this would have been for the attackers. Near the top of the hill is the New Zealand Memorial Park. Then you transfer to Zonnebeke and visit the Memorial Museum of Passchendaele. There the memory of the battle is kept alive through images and movies, a large collection of historical artifacts and several life-likedioramas. Eye-catcher is an underground dugout tunnel with communicationand dressing post, headquarters, workplaces and dormitories. PM: In the afternoon, visit Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest British war cemetery in the world (11,908 graves are registered), the Monument to the New Zealand Forces ('s Graventafelstraat) and the new British Passchendaele Cemetery, which dates from the 1920s and that contains 126 New Zealand burials. Return to Ypres in the late afternoon and explore this lovely city on your own specially the ramparts and ramparts cemetery where several ANZAC soldiers are buried. The coach drops off the group at Lille station for your TGV to Paris. 5:13pm Depart Lille Europe aboard TGV #TBA at 17:13 **subject to student fares being available** 6:17pm Arrive Paris Nord **subject to time change** On arrival at the Gare du Nord, you meet with your coach driver and transfer to your hostel accommodation in Paris. Thursday 24 th July 2014 (B) This evening, meet with your driver at your hotel and transfer by coach to Paris CDG Airport. 9:50pm Depart Charles De Gaulle airport on Emirates Flight EK 76 Friday 25 th July 2014 06:25am Arrive Dubai International airport in transit 10:10am Depart Dubai International airport on Emirates Flight EK 406 Saturday 26 th July 2014 05:35am Arrive Melbourne in transit 06:40am Depart Melbourne International airport on Emirates Flight EK 5135 12:15pm Arrive home to Auckland 7
**Arrangements End** As our trips are unique and tailored to your needs, this proposal is subject to availability at the time of confirmation. When the clients deposit is received by Defining Moments we will then immediately start to reserve the itinerary. If any part of the itinerary is not available, we will do our best to secure an appropriate alternative. If the group or any individuals decide not to participate in this pre arranged itinerary and substitute it for an alternative it will be at their own costs. **Add ons/side trips are available and can be requested through Defining Moments** A division of House of Travel Whangarei Limited. 8